Dr. Randall Hansen's
    Basic Internet Marketing Facts

    Please note that most of the material in this report is compiled from sources of Net Marketing information that can be found in more detail in my Net Marketing Resources Page.

    1. What is the Internet?
      • a collection of computer networks linked together;
      • started out as a military network....then science and education...then business;
      • today, more than 40,000+ networks are linked together forming the Internet;
      • 50-65 million users.... with projected growth to more than 100 million by next year ....growing to more than 200 million by 2000. The Net is growing faster than any other technologies that have preceded it. Radio existed for 38 years before it had 50 million listeners, and television took 13 years to reach the 50 million mark. The Net reached that level in just 4 years.
      • 30-40 million users of the Web...up from 1 million in 1994;
      • Uses of the Internet:
        • Web -- fastest growing, but not largest
        • Email -- still the biggest use of the Net
        • Discussion groups/chat rooms/newsgroups
        • Telnet
        • Gopher/FTP
    2. PC vs. TV
      • 30 million households have computers....growing to 40-70 million by 2000;
      • About 22 million households connect to the Internet;
      • Consider the Lexmark Report:
        • 57% of computer users would give up their televisions rather than their computers
        • 66% of computer users would give up their stereos rather than their computers
        • 55% of computer users would give up their dishwashers rather than their computers
      • What about WebTV and other non-computer Net/Web accessers? One study reports that by 2000 22% of all Internet access devices will be machines specifically designed for the Net.
    3. Demographics of Surfers
      • Income: 42% have a HHI of $50,000+ (versus 33% of total U.S. population)
      • Gender: 2:1 ratio of male to female, but number of women has doubled in last two years
      • Age: 18-35 are the largest group, but age is increasing; 19% are 50+; average age: 31
      • Education: 73% have attended college (versus 46% of total U.S. population)
      More demographics:
      • New York and California the only states with more than 1 million Net households;
      • States with more than half a million Net households include: Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania;
      • States with the highest concentration of Net households include California and Massachusetts.
    4. Net Marketing vs. Web Marketing
      • Net marketing is using tools like e-mail to help market your product
      • Web marketing involves developing a Web presence to help market your product
    5. Why use the Web?
      • Access: 24 hour availability
      • Relationship Marketing (many Web surfers are return visitors)
    6. Why do people use the Web? (According to Baruch College-Harris Poll 1997)
      • Research
      • Education
      • Entertainment
      • News
      • Hobbies
      • Game-playing
      • Gathering information
      • Socializing
      • Investing/Banking
      • Shopping
    7. What kind of Web Presence?
      • Catalog/Sales (Wal-Mart and its 80,000 items with no real marketing costs)
      • Services
      • Information
      • Corporate Information (for investors)
      • Advertising (average cost of a banner is $30 per 1,000 impressions)
      • Customer Service
      • Market research
    8. Web Advertising
      • Internet advertising revenue in 1997 was nearly $1 billion, more than triple the revenue produced in 1996.
    9. Web Purchases
      • The Commerce Department reports that 10 million people across the U.S. and Canada made purchases -- from airline tickets to books to cars -- on the Web by the end of 1997, up from 7.4 million six months earlier.
      • On-line shoppers are expected to spend twice as much in 1998 as they did last year - $4.8 billion, up from $2.4 billion, according to Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm that focuses on technology. While that number is still a drop in the bucket of the estimated $450 billion spent each year by U.S. consumers, Forrester is predicting that on-line sales will jump 700 percent by 2001, to $17.3 billion.
    10. Businesses on the Web:
      • Approximately 60% of small businesses do not currently use the Internet as a marketing tool, but nearly half responded they were likely -- and 22% said very likely...but of those, 70% didn't know where to start.
    11. Cautions:
      • Net/Web marketing is just ONE tool of marketing, but it is one of the hottest.

      Return to Dr. Hansen's Internet Marketing Resources Page

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    Contents copyright Dr. Randall S. Hansen, 1997-98; Graphics copyright Jelane K. Johnson, 1996

    URL: http://www.stetson.edu/~rhansen/netnotes.html


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    Dr. Randall S. Hansen Department of Marketing Stetson University
    421 N. Woodland Blvd. Unit 8398 DeLand, FL 32720
    Web Home Page: http://www.stetson.edu/~rhansen/
    Phone: 904-822-7495 FAX: 904-822-7393
    Email: randall.hansen@stetson.edu

    This page last updated May 23, 1998.